Urban planning professionals…

Urban planning professionals are unanimous: the only way to reduce gridlock in a city of Toronto's size is to get people out of their cars. This means providing alternative transportation, including a strong network of bike lanes that is not limited to smaller streets. I realize that polling and focus groups suggest that the government can use this as a political wedge issue to score points with suburban drivers, but this doesn't account for 1) public reaction to the cost of removing existing lanes; 2) public reaction against focusing time/attention/funds on this issue when health care and other issues demand action; 3) negative media coverage throughout this process and for months afterwards when the bike lane removal inevitably fails to alleviate traffic problems; 4) exacerbating anger within Toronto based on this media coverage and for intervening one too many times in municipal jurisdiction; 5) people may die from traffic accidents when safer bike lane options are removed, and the government will bear some responsibility. This has all the hallmarks of something the Ontario government will later wish they could reverse course on, and could simply avoid if they do not spend tens of millions of taxpayer dollars to remove existing bike lanes.